Project Info

Today’s hyperarid conditions in the Atacama Desert are determined by the inhibition of moisture influx from the South Atlantic and South‐eastern Pacific and its location north of the Southern Westerlies. However, episodic lacustrine and fluviatile deposits in the Atacama’s hyperarid core document alternations between hyperarid and more humid (semiarid to arid) conditions since the Miocene. The forcings and feedbacks behind these palaeoclimatic fluctuations and in particular their considerable spatial and temporal variability are poorly understood. We intend to explore land‐ocean coupling between the palaeoclimate of the Atacama Desert and the Humboldt Current System (HCS) on different time‐scales throughout the Neogene.

Lower Miocene to Pliocene marine sediments exposed along the coastline of northern Chile (23–30°S) provide an outstanding archive to address these questions. Based on sclerochronology (long‐lived bivalves) and microfossils (foraminifera; assemblages and shell geochemistry) we aim to determine variations in sea‐surface temperatures, upwelling properties and continental runoff on seasonal to orbital time scales. The new low‐ and high-resolution records will provide unprecedented insights into forcings and feedbacks between HCS intensity, ENSO behaviour, upwelling properties, moisture flux to the adjacent continent and palaeoclimatic fluctuations in the Atacama Desert.